Operation: Knightfall

19 BBY

Being conflicted was something Anakin Skywalker was very familiar with. He always tried to do the right thing, tried to do what was best for everyone, but most of the time, he struggled to even see what that was.

Should he follow orders when he saw another, better way? Should he give up on his men because the odds of their survival were slim to non-existent when he knew to his very core that they must still be alive? Should he act like the Jedi he was when being human seemed so much more real?

Should he wait in the Council Chamber like Master Windu had told him when he was so certain that his destiny lied in the Chancellor's office?

Anakin had been conflicted about one thing or another all his life, but never before had it ripped him apart as it did in this very moment; his mind told him to stay while his heart urged him to rush to the Senate Building before it was too late, the Force being unnatural silent on this matter. Now when he needed its helpful aid more than ever before, it didn't offer him any advice.

No, this decision was his alone to make and that terrified him more than he liked to admit.

He swept from one side of the chamber to another, his hands fussing on the sleeves of his robes until he realized what he was doing and forcing himself to sit down again. Then, after a few minutes, the entire thing repeated itself.

Was it worth it to listen to what Palpatine had to say? If what he had told him was true, he was the only one who could help him save Padmé, and the Jedi had proven that they couldn't –wouldn't- help him. Was it worth it offering his soul to the devil and possibly betraying the Order that had taken him in all these years ago?

Was it worth it betraying Obi-Wan?

In the end, it always came back to the question of whether Padmé was more important to him than anything else, and the answer was always 'yes, one thousand times yes!'

He couldn't let her and their child die, no matter the cost.

Anakin knew what he had to do.

It was that decision that ultimately made him leave the chamber and move towards the hangars. Forgoing decorum and manners entirely, he ran as fast as his feet could carry him. There was not much time left, he could sense it, and if he was too late, Padmé would-

He almost lost his footing when the Force started screaming in terror, wave after wave of excruciating pain flooding his senses. His vision became blurry until there was nothing but white and black dots, the taste of blood and ash filled his mouth, and the screams of thousands of people filled his ears; never had his senses been so overwhelmed before, and all he could do was to lean against the wall and wait until it was over.

Even in that stats, a small part of him managed to be grateful that no one else was there to witness his momentary weakness.

There was no way to tell how much time had passed when the onslaught of impressions finally came to a stop, but at the very least, it must have been more than just a few minutes.

I have wasted enough time, he thought as he straightened up, his vision still somewhat hazy. I must hurry!

However, as it was the case all too often for him, that plan went out of the window the sound of blaster shots echoed through the halls. That alone wouldn't be all that attention-grabbing, of course. He had fought on countless battlefields for years now, after all. No, the truly concerning part was that it happened inside the Temple. That, he knew, was not a good sign.

Anakin tried to reach out with the Force to find out what was happening but was quickly forced to cease his attempts by the burning pain that shot through his head. Whatever was happening right now was polluting the Force with so much pain and fear that he found it impossible to open himself up to it right now.

And the Temple, the one place in the galaxy that stood as a beacon of hope and serenity above all others, was at its very centre.

There was no time to think more about that because a young boy ran around the corner in front of him, his padawan braid swinging from side to side with every hasty step he made, only to fall forward with a silent gasp when a blaster bolt hit him right in the back.

He opened his mouth, but no tone escaped him, and all he could do was watch the body fall to the ground, never to rise again. Were this to happen under other circumstances or at a different location, his reflexes would have kicked in already, but at the Temple, the place that had been his home for over half his life and that was supposed to be safe, his mind needed a little bit longer to take the situation in.

That was one part of the reason for why he wasn't prepared to defend himself when six clone troopers emerged from where the padawan had come from. The other reason was, of course, the fact that he didn't automatically register the clones as enemies.

It was only thanks to his quick reflexes that he managed to get his lightsaber out in time to reflect the blaster shots aimed at him, killing two of the clones before he even realized what he had done. "Why are you attacking me?" he shouted while ignoring the queasy feeling of knowing that he had killed two of his comrades. "Why are you here?"

However, none of them answered him, so, in a desperate act, he bundled as much energy as his current state allowed and threw the remaining four cloned backwards with a thrust of his hand, knocking them out instantly.

Anakin's breath was more haggled than it should be from such a simple action, but he didn't even notice; instead, his wide eyes moved from the unconscious bodies of the clones to the dead one of the young padawan.

"What the kriffing hell is going on?!"

No matter how unexpected - or inexplicable, for that matter - the situation was, after the initial shock had passed, his mind fell into the all too familiar state of alert he was used to. This was a battlefield and he would treat it as such. It was a relief of sorts, really; at least here he was in control. On a battlefield, he knew what to do and what to think.

In some ways, he was more at peace on a battlefield than anywhere else.

One of the many things he had gotten used to over the years was the sight of dead people. Whether it were soldiers or just civilians that got caught up between the lines, there were always casualties in the wake of a battle. Often too many to count, even. If there was one advantage of having a mostly mechanical army like the one the Separatists had, then it was the lack of corpses.

Even so, seeing the small bodies of children with blaster holes in their backs lying side by side with those who had been crushed by some rubble was always so much worse. The terrified expressions on their faces, the confusion and bewilderment that was so apparent for everyone to see, hit much closer than the rest. Especially now that he was to become a father.

What made it worse now was that these bodies didn't belong to some unfortunate civilian, but Jedi younglings and padawans. Knights and masters were there too, of course, but much fewer in number -for now- and much less eye-catching. And while Anakin didn't know the name of most of them, he still vaguely recognized many faces from running into them on occasion.

It made him sick and were it not for the urgency of the situation, he might have thrown up already. As it was, however, he forced himself to keep it together.

He jumped from place to place, deflected blue blaster shots rather than the red ones he was used to in an effort to save as many Jedi as he could from the clones who led the attack. And that, he thought, was a completely different cane of worms; he would recognize the 501st everywhere, but apparently, they didn't recognize him. Or if they did, they didn't think it necessary to reply to his shouted questions. His men, the soldiers that had gone through hell with him and came out of it on top, were now trying to kill him and all the Jedi.

The first time Anakin cut down one of his men was when he jumped in front of a young Nautolan boy that was about to be shot, and the nausea he felt afterwards was almost enough to bring him to his knees. These were his people -his friends!- just as much, if not more so than the Jedi, and he had killed one of them. Not by deflecting a blaster, but by intentionally striking him down.

Why would they attack the Temple? Why would they kill children?

Why wouldn't they answer his damn questions?

There must be an explanation for this. He simply couldn't believe that they would do something like this if there was any other-

No, there was no way to justify something like this. Even if their lives were on the line, none of them would sink this low.

For a second, he thought about Fives. What was it he had said? Something about-

Anakin didn't get to finish that line of thinking as a terrified cry made him turn around and jump to its source before his mind had even caught up with his body. It was only half a second after he had landed and reflected another blaster shot back to the clone that had fired it that he even realized that he had moved at all.

Once all of this is over, he thought grimly, I will need to get a new lightsaber that's not blue. Assuming I survive, of course.

"Master Skywalker?" The whispered words brought him back into the present and made him look down to the Twi'lek that lay to his feet, her blue skin so pale that it almost appeared grey. "What is going on? Why are the clones attacking the Temple?"

She couldn't be older than six or seven, and by the looks of it, she was about to start crying. In all honestly, the only reason she hadn't already was probably that she was still too shocked to fully comprehend what was happening.

After confirming that they were alone for now, he knelt down next to her, trying his best to appear calmer and more confident than he felt. "I don't know," he said honestly. "But it's alright now. I'm here, so nothing will happen to you, okay?"

Anakin never quite knew what to say to younglings, always feeling weird just being in their presence, but he must have done something right, for she basically jumped into his arms and started to sob into his chest while holding on to him like a lifeline.

He probably shouldn't indulge in this as much as he did and try to get them away from her as fast as he could, but he couldn't help it. It grounded him just as much as it did her and helped him to centre himself in face of all this chaos; protecting someone was something he was good at, so now that he had an actual charge, he could think more clearly.

He gently put some distance between himself and the girl to look her in the face. "What's your name?"

She looked at him with big, teary eyes. "Numa, Master Skywalker."

"Alright, Numa. We need to get away from here, do you understand?"

She nodded.

"Good. The fastest way should be-"

"Master Shaak Ti told us to head to the Council Chamber and wait for her there."

Anakin blinked. The Council Chamber was located in the centre of the Temple and accessible by only a single turbolift, making it not only comparable hard to reach but also easy to defend. In the short term, it wasn't a bad place to send younglings to. However, he quickly realized a not insignificant problem with this plan; once the clones actually reached the chamber, there was no other way to run, transforming it into a death trap.

While some optimistic part of his mind wanted to argue that the clones would never be able to get that far, the realistic part knew better. With how thinly stretched the Order was these days, and with so few knights and masters remaining in the Temple, there was little to no chance for them to come out of this on top. Not when the attacker were some of the best soldiers in the galaxy, had surprise on their side, and especially not without any form of communication to cooperate.

Master Ti had probably not been aware of how dire the situation really was. She wouldn't have told the younglings to go there if she did.

He stood up but didn't let go of Numa's hand. "Alright, change of plan. We will go to the Council Chamber and rescue as many people as we can, and then we will get out of here." He sent her another smile. "Everything is gonna be alright, I promise."

Anakin wondered whom of them he was trying to convince, but that mattered little right now. The only important thing was that she believed him. Either they actually managed to escape, which meant he could keep his words, or in the worst case they would fail and die, but at least she would not be as scared in the last minutes of her life as she would otherwise be.

It was obvious that she was still terrified -who could blame her?- but his apparent confidence thankfully seemed to calm her somewhat. "Okay."

"Then let's go."

Anakin quickly realized that it was a dozen times harder to defend blaster shots when you had a little child hang to one of your arms; not only was the way he could swing his weapon limited, he was also in no position to move around as freely as he preferred. There were not too many soldiers this deep inside the building yet, though, and they managed to sneak by most troopers they saw, so it didn't become a problem. The few confrontations they had were with small groups against whom his handicap didn't matter, meaning he wasn't forced to let go of Numa. He would have if the situation demanded it, of course, but he was glad he didn't need to.

On their way, they picked up three more people, two of which were padawans that could help him defend the rest of their group. The two of them, a human boy and girl called Kon and Zera, were at the end of their group while he and Numa ran ahead, enclosing the final member of their group, a Zabrak youngling, in their midst. All of them told him the same as Numa about being told to fall back to either the Council Chamber or other rooms that were similarly deep inside the building.

Anakin assumed that every surviving knight and master had told this to younglings and padawans while they themselves rushed towards the enemy in the hopes of stopping or, at the very least, slowing them down. That would be why they hadn't seen any bodies in a while. If most clones were still occupied with fighting the Jedi that tried to stop them, few would have been able to get this far already.

The ride up the turbolift was tense. The odds of encountering clones once they reached their destination were slim, but if they did, they would probably die. With how close they stood, there was no way he could swing his lightsaber to block every incoming attack. Not that there had been any other option, of course. He would be damned before he left some of his charges behind or, even worse, send them ahead on their own.

I guess if push comes to shove, I will need to block them with the Force, he thought, knowing that was easier said than done. Stopping a shot or two was one thing, but dozens at the same time might just prove too much. He certainly had never tried it before. No time like the present, then.

Fortunately, his fears were unfounded and all they encountered was a group of six younglings. There were three humans, one Duro, another Bith, and a Togurta girl that-

He forced himself not to let his eyes linger on her. Thinking about how much she looked like Ahsoka, different skin colour or not, wouldn't do him any good right now. Thinking about Ahsoka at all wouldn't do him any good right now. No matter how worried he was about the fact that the other half of the 501st was with her, he couldn't let himself get distracted like that. She was strong, he knew that, and if whatever was happening here was happening with her as well like he thought it did, she would be fine.

"Master Skywalker," a chore of voices greeted him, and he could feel the relief that the sight of him brought them.

Anakin couldn't say what it was, but some voice in the back of his mind whispered that it was misplaced. He silenced it immediately, but he couldn't quite shake off the memory of it.

"There are too many of them," one of the children, a human boy, said with wide eyes. "What are we going to do?"

No matter how tired he felt, no matter how much his own desperation and fear was pulling him down, he couldn't let them see that, so he once again put on the mask of the 'Hero With No Fear' that he had so grown used to over the years as he straightened himself up and morphed his face into a friendly and confident grin. "First, we need to get out of here."

To his growing unease, they didn't find any other Jedi while their group of eleven rushed through the empty halls of the Temple. While he was glad that there weren't any clones and barely any corpses either, the fact that they didn't run into anyone else opened the possibility that no one else was even left alive. That thought was stupid and he knew it; the Temple was big, so it shouldn't be surprising that they didn't encounter anyone. But even knowing that, he couldn't help but feel disheartened about it. If they struggled that much here, in the heart of their power, how much worse must it be all over the galaxy where-

He came to an abrupt stop.

"Master," the Zabrak youngling, Zen'ka, said in a hushed voice. "What is it? Did you sense something?"

He had thought about it several times since the attack started, but only now did he realize the implications; if the clones attacked the Temple, they probably attacked the Jedi all over the galaxy. They wouldn't see it coming, would be unable to defend themselves when their supposed comrades shot them in the back. It was probably too late already to save most of them, but maybe there was still something he could do for the rest. Maybe it wasn't too late yet.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but we need to make a short detour."

Anakin took the sight of his charges in. There were the younglings, from the girl that still held his hand to the group of children that huddled side by side in an effort to comfort one another, trying to look brave in the face of a previously unimaginable danger. Then there were the two padawans, none of them older than thirteen, doing their best to be helpful with their shaking hands on their weapon, ready to defend the younglings with their lives should he fail to do so.

He didn't want to risk their lives, but he knew what he had to do. If he didn't, countless more would die.

It was Zera who asked the questions all of them had. "A detour, Master? But I can't sense any enemies ahead."

"That's not the reason." He raised his hand to stop the onslaught of questions they were about to unleash on him and was mildly surprised when it actually worked. "We need to send a beacon to all the Jedi that are currently deployed. If the clones attack us here, there is nothing that stops them from doing so all over the galaxy. We need to warn them."

He saw the moment the realisation set in, and as much as it clenched his insides to see such a grim look on the face of children, a part of him was thankful for it because that meant he didn't need to waste time explaining it to them.

"The central security station is thankfully only a few minutes from here," he continued. "We will head there, I will send an emergency transmission, and then we will get out. Any questions?"

There were none.

That wasn't good.

"There are so many," the Togruta girl, Ashla, whispered, radiating just as much fear as the rest of their group.

He couldn't blame them. Over three dozen clone troopers were mingling in the circular hall in front of the entrance of the security station, the greatest group of clones they had encountered so far by a large margin.

The fact that such a large group had made headway this far into the building wasn't a good sign and at first, he feared it might mean they had managed to break the remaining resistance. However, when he stretched his senses out to see if that was true, ignoring all the fear and suffering that still polluted the Force to the point that his vision became spotted with white dots, he was relieved to notice that the fighting was still going on. Not as much as he would have liked, but enough to convince him that the enemies -and it still made him sick to think of the clones like that- in front of them were an exception rather than the rule. With how big the Temple was, it was probably no wonder that some groups of clones had managed to bypass its defenders.

Pulling himself together, he turned around. "Alright, here is the plan. You will wait here while I try to get through them and get into the security station. You should be safe here, so wait until I return. If I die, you need to continue on your own, do you understand?"

Anakin could see that none of them agreed with that even before they began complaining.

"What? No!"

"We can't let you go alone!"

"You can't leave us!"

"Let us help! You are more likely to win if we have your back!"

Numa simply let go and wrapped her arms around his legs instead.

"No," he said forcefully while trying to keep his voice low. They made enough noises as it was, no need to add to that and risk being found before he was ready. "The hallway is too narrow. I will be able to move more freely on my own. Besides, I will be able to fight better when I know that all of you are safe." Or at least as safe as it gets in this kind of situation.

Kon glared at him, but the tears that formed in his eyes made it look more desperate than fierce. "We can fight!"

"You and Zera might," he agreed. "But what about the younglings? Who protects them if all three of us are fighting the clones?"

He had no answer to that.

Seeing as that there were no other objections aside from Numa's still ongoing grip on his legs, he continued: "If we lock the entrance to corridor we came from, incoming troopers will need some time to get through, giving you enough time to get away. If that happens, don't worry about me and run away. If you follow the corridor for about ten more minutes, you will reach Master Khun's classroom. Go past it, turn left, and then run until you reach the end. There is an old maintenance shaft hidden behind a statue of Master Bastila Shan that hasn't been in use for at least a century or two. The repair droids that used it were much bigger than the more modern models, so all of you will fit through it easily. It will bring you all the way down to one of the lower levels. Try to get cloaks, hide your lightsabers, and keep out of sight. Try to lay down for at least a few weeks before you try to leave the planet." He looked at all of them with what he hoped was an encouraging smile. "Anything you didn't understand?" No one spoke. "Good," he continued and looked at the two padawans. "Without me, you two will be in charge. I trust you to keep everyone safe, alright?"

As he had expected, once he gave them some responsibility, they immediately straightened up. At least now that they had a task of their own, they felt more important and were less likely to jump after him.

Having dealt with that, he leaned down to look at Numa. "Hey," he said gently while reaching out with the Force, sending calming thoughts to her mind. "It's gonna be okay. I will be back before you even know I was gone." He hoped the calming thoughts were effective because he felt like an absolute idiot saying these things. Not only was there no way he could guarantee anything he told her, but they were also some of the lamest things he had ever said.

She looked at him with wide, wet eyes, almost making him reconsider his decision on the spot.

"You need to be brave now, okay?" he continued when she didn't say anything. "Can you do that?"

"No!"

That reply actually made him chuckle. "I know it's hard, Numa, but we have no other choice. You want to help the other too, don't you?"

She didn't agree, but she also avoided making eye contact with him.

"I promise you I will come back, but you need to let go of me, yes?"

He gently unwrapped her hands, thankful that she didn't put up a fight. If she had resisted more, well, he had no idea what he would have done. Dealing with children was really not one of his strengths.

"Remember what I told you," he said once he had straightened up again. "You will be fine as long as you follow the plan."

They nodded.

"Then may the Force be with you."

The hallway in front of the security station as wide as they came, but while there was enough space for him to dodge and freely block incoming attacks, there was nothing he could use as a barrier. Usually, that wouldn't be a problem; droids were not good enough to pose much of a treat even in an environment like this. In fact, such hallways were ideal to fight droids because there was no way for them to encircle you. As their attacks could come from one direction only, it was easy to reflect their straightforward attacks right back at them with little trouble.

Clones were smarter than that, though. Where a droid would simply aim at his chest -the biggest possible target with the theoretically highest chance of actually hitting- clones would spread their attacks more out. This in turn meant that it would be harder for him to defend himself. The situation was even worse because these were not just any clones but the ones from his own battalion; they knew how he fought and thought, making them even more dangerous to him.

However, he was confident that he could do it. No, the true problem would come once they realized that they couldn't fight him in such an environment. Then, he knew, they would retreat into the security station itself.

For one thing, there they had cover from which they could attack him. For another, the only way inside was through the door, meaning they could concentrate fire on him when he entered and had no other way to go.

Then, as if to top all of that, he also needed to take care of how he deflected the blaster shots because he couldn't let them damage the machines in the station.

To sum it up, his situation was basically as bad as it could be. At least I have my lightsaber and am uninjured, he thought. That must count for something, right?

There was no way to sneak up on them, so he did the only thing he could do: rushing straight forward.

As expected, he was spotted immediately.

"It's General Skywalker!"

"Shoot him! Don't let him get close!"

"Call for reinforcement!"

Blue bolts of pure energy flew at him within seconds, but in that time, he had already crossed half the distance. However, the attacks did slow him down, forcing him to put some attention towards blocking and dodging.

He jumped against the wall, then pushed off it and propelled himself forward with a somersault during which he deflected three shots. Then, once he landed in a crouch, he continued to run in a zigzag to keep the soldiers on their toes while felling one of them with a carefully redirected blaster bolt.

However, as he had expected, they knew how he moved, so once the surprise of his attack wore off, their attacks got more precise. This meant that although he had managed to cross almost three-fourths of the distance in just a handful of seconds, the last fifteen meters or so required all his skill to navigate.

He twisted and bent in weird angels, jumped to the ceiling and pushed himself down again, and generally tried to move less like he usually did to throw them off. But even so, and even with eight of their own men down, progress was much slower than he would have liked. Thus, knowing that the longer he needed to finish this the greater the risk of reinforcement became, he began to take more risks:

Rather than jumping away completely, he instead simply twisted his head to let a shot flew by close enough to feel its heat on his skin; rather than slowing down to reflect two shots, he instead reflected one and blocked the other with a Force shield; rather than falling back when a wall of blue energy bolt flew at him, he jumped forwards with clenched teeth and hoped that his Force shield would be enough to get him through and maybe even get the advantage.

His scheme worked, and when he emerged on the other side to the surprised shouts of the cloned, he swallowed all his grief and pain and hurt before cutting them down, trying his best to make every attack a killing blow to minimize their suffering.

He succeeded only mostly with that.

Once he was done, eighteen corpses were surrounding him, meaning at least a dozen had managed to retreat inside the security station.

Anakin had other things on his mind, however.

He had always prided himself in being able to recognize his men even when they wore their identical armour. As long as they weren't fresh recruits with completely immaculate armour, he could identify them by the various nicks and ticks in them. Now, he wished he couldn't.

It had been easy to ignore such details in the heat of battle, but now, in the wake of it when everything was silent, he couldn't keep his eyes from wandering, nor could he stop putting names to the mutilated corpses. His mouth tasted like ash and his stomach clenched painfully; he suddenly found himself grateful that they didn't use swords like the Jedi of old. The idea of having not only his friends' lives but also literally their blood on his hand was unbearable and he hurried to bury it deep inside his mind where he would never need to touch it again.

He didn't know if he was happy that he had left Rex with Ahsoka or not; on one hand, he wouldn't run in danger of being forced to kill him, but on the other hand, he might become a danger for her instead.

He wondered what Obi-Wan would do if he were forced to fight Cody.

He also wondered if he had managed to beat Grievous or if he had died before he had to witness the betrayal of their friends.

Once again, Anakin pushed these dark thoughts aside. Obi-Wan would be fine, just like Ahsoka would be as well. They were tough, they all were. There was no way any of them would die. And besides, he would have felt it if anything had happened to them, he was sure of it.

Even with his limited senses right now, he would have felt something like that.

With a deep breath, he took a few seconds to gather as much energy as he could muster and formed a shield around himself that would hopefully absorb every blaster shot he couldn't block with his lightsaber. Then he used the terminal to open the door and jumped into action.

The moment the door was open, the expected onslaught of blaster fire greeted him. There must have been troopers inside the room he and the rest of his group hadn't previously seen, though, because the number of blaster bolts was much larger than he had anticipated. Even so, he was able to deflect some shots while his shield mostly held.

The emphasis was on 'mostly', however.

A wave of burning pain shot through him when a single shot connected with his left shoulder, almost breaking his concentration and thus costing his life, but he managed to get a grip on himself in the last possible second and rushed towards his first foe.

As he did all too often amid a battle, he used his pain to clear his mind and sharpen his senses.

As a boy, Anakin could walk through a storm of ice pellets so sharp they cut his skin. He could hike kilometre after kilometre in the blaze of Tatooine's twin suns. He could plunge into a lake dotted with ice floes. Pain, he could handle; he'd always been tough. At four years old, he'd been able to take the worst beating Watto would deliver without so much as making a sound.

This was nothing in comparison.

He used the Force to throw a nearby trooper towards where he could see two others hiding behind a counter, hoping to limit the fire from that direction for a few seconds, and then jumped to another one that was trying to retreat to a safer position, cutting his head off with a quick swing of his weapon.

Not allowing himself to slow down even one bit, he immediately jumped high into the air, doing a backflip and landing behind two further clones that weren't quick enough to defend themselves before they shared the same fate as their comrade. Then, when he was just about to repeat the same action -his men knew that he rarely did the same move twice in a row, so he hoped they wouldn't expect that- he realized that he stood right in front of some important looking machinery, meaning he could allow the attacks that were aimed at him hit it.

So, he stayed where he was and began blocking the incoming shots.

While he was currently fortunate enough that only a handful of clones had a clear sight of him, the others would be quick to move and get in on the fun, so he needed to end this quickly.

With a quick pull, he catapulted one of his attackers in his direction while simultaneously ignoring the searing pain when one shot grazed his right leg due to his attention being momentarily on the Force technique rather than on defending himself. It didn't do any meaningful damage to him nor the machines he tried to protect, though, so it hardly mattered. He decapitated the clone while he was still mid-flight and then propelled himself forward, using the decreased number of attacks to make quick headway and fell three more clones with one wide arc of his lightsaber.

The fight became somewhat of a haze after that; he jumped and bent and slashed while using the Force to throw people and objects around to get every advantage he could. He redirected blaster bolts with his lightsaber and the Force both, absorbed attacks he couldn't block, and put more and more attention towards gaining strength from the Force to substitute for his own shortcomings.

Countless sleepless nights of throwing around in worry about his wife, the anxiety of her possible demise and the fact that he was about to become a father, and the blaster wounds he got in this very battle were catching up with him, apparently.

However, in the end, he alone was still alive in a room filled with corpses in white armour. He had been gazed at several places and had been hit directly in his lower back and left shoulder, but for the most part, he was fine. His wounds would need treatment eventually, but none were life-threatening.

Not allowing himself to rest because that would just allow his mind to wander to places he didn't like, he hurried to do what he had come for in the first place.

"This is Knight Anakin Skywalker. The Temple and, I suspect, both the Jedi Order at large and the Republic itself have fallen. Clone Troopers have attacked us without warning and killed everyone in sight. Something about them is not right. My own men didn't even recognize me. No matter how much you trust your subordinates, you can't trust them because they are probably not even aware of what is going on themselves.

Chancellor Palpatine is the Sith Lord we were looking for all these years. Master Windu, Tiin, Kolar, and Fisto tried to arrest him, but they failed and lost their lives in the attempt. This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi: do not return to the Temple. That time has passed. Avoid Coruscant. Avoid detection. Stay hidden until we can reform and fight back.

May the Force be with us all."

Anakin knew it was egoistic, that he should go back to his charges and get them the hell out of here, but he couldn't just leave without even trying to contact those he cared about.

Obi-Wan and Ashoka didn't pick up, only increasing his worry for them, but all that was forgotten when Padmé's beautiful face appeared in front of him.

"Ani!" she exclaimed, clear relief in her voice. "I was so worried! There are all kinds of weird rumours. It is said the Jedi tried to overthrow the Chancellor and take over the Republic, and then there is all the smoke coming from the Temple, and-"

"Palpatine is the Sith Lord," he interrupted her. As much as he wanted to talk with her forever, he knew he needed to keep this short. "He manipulated this entire war, Padmé. Master Windu and some others tried to stop him, but they were killed."

"What? That can't be-" She stopped, and he knew that this was the moment she realized which state he was in. "You're hurt! What happened?"

"Clones stormed the Temple." He clenched his fists. "They killed everyone, even the younglings. I tried to save as many as I could, but…"

Her eyes were wide. "That is… I have no words. And you're sure Palpatine is a Sith?"

"He told me to my face, and I think he wanted me to join him."

The realization set in just when he said it; Palpatine wanted him as his new apprentice, and he, the idiot he was, had almost complied! By the Force, he had been on his way to do just that, hadn't he? Would he have been here now, leading the attack himself instead of defending against it, if he had actually gone through with that? If he had been just a little bit faster to make up his mind? Would it have been he who killed the Jedi? The younglings? Maybe even young Numa, Ashla, and the other children that were waiting for him right now just a hallway away?

His vision became fuzzy and he could feel the puke coming up his throat at that thought; he had been about to become a Monster just to save Padmé, and the worst thing was that he couldn't say with certainty that he wouldn't still become one. If Palpatine was here right now, would he really tell him no? Even if that meant Padmé would die?

I'm a Monster, he thought almost numbly. But is that really such a surprise? Haven't I always been a Monster? Force, why do people even care about me? Why does Padmé even love me? She was there when I killed the Tusken Raiders! How can she be happy to have my child?!

"Ani? Ani! Do you hear me? Are you alright?"

He blinked. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. I thought I heard anything, that's all." He hesitated for a second, then… "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for, Ani," she said softly, and why was she speaking o him like that? He didn't deserve this, didn't deserve her, didn't deserve to be happy, didn't-

"You need to go," she continued, unaware of his thoughts. "You need to get yourself and the people with you as far away from Coruscant as possible. We can-"

"You need to go as well!" he blurted out.

"What? No, Ani, I can't-"

"Palpatine knows that you're pregnant!" he said with growing panic. "He knows that you're pregnant and that I'm the father! Our child will be strong in the Force, Padmé. If you're anywhere close to him, he will come for you and our child! You're in danger as long as you're on Coruscant!"

That made her pause, and even though he could only see her upper body, he knew that her hand went to her stomach. "I haven't thought about that…"

"You can't go to Naboo," he continued, knowing what her first idea would be. "That's the first place he would look for you."

Padmé hesitated for a moment before replying in a thoughtful tone. "Bail -Senator Organa, you know him- mentioned he wanted to visit his wife soon. I'm sure he would be willing to take off a bit earlier and take me with him."

He nodded. That was probably the best that could be arranged with such short notice. "I will meet you on Alderaan, then."

"Just don't hurry!" she urged. "Don't risk anything. You will be in much more danger than I and you also need to take care of your charges."

He had no intention of waiting any longer than absolutely necessary, but he didn't want to argue right now, so he nodded. "I love you."

Her face softened. "I love you too. Be safe, alright?"

He forced himself to give her a crooked grin that hopefully hid the dark thoughts that went through his head. "Aren't I always?"

Getting out of the Temple turned out to be graciously easy once he returned to his group. While they fretted about his injuries, he was able to reasonably quickly make them move, though he still needed to deal with their concerned eyes on his back. Not that he paid it much mind, being still occupied with the realization of what a terrible person he actually was.

Maybe he should have died in the attack on the Temple. The galaxy would certainly be better off without a ticking bomb like him, right?

However, right now it wasn't just his life at stake, but that of several children as well. So, at least for now, he needed to survive.

Escaping through the maintenance shaft was as easy as he remembered from his early days as a Jedi when he used this way to sneak out whenever everything got just too much to handle, although it might maybe be a bit crampier than it used to be. Still, he fitted through and that was the important thing.

Once they were out of the Temple and in the underbelly of Coruscant, it wasn't too hard to steal a spaceship for their escape. Considering it probably belonged to some criminal, he didn't even feel bad about it. And even if it didn't, he was reasonably sure that they needed it much more than its actual owner.

Palpatine did apparently not have the time or resources yet to order a planetary blockade, or he simply didn't bother to put one in place. Whatever it was, it meant he needed to only pass the standard control points with their less than average emergency pilots, making their escape almost laughable easy after all the problems they had encountered previously.

He was glad about that, though. He was starting to feel the effects of his wounds and wasn't sure how he would fare against experienced pilots at the moment.

But no matter. It didn't happen, so there was no reason to think about it. Much more important was that he and his charges, including the sleeping Twi'lek girl in his lap, were save for now. Dark times lay ahead of them, he knew, but they could manage. What his role would be, he couldn't say yet. However, thinking about that could wait, just like thinking about what kind of person he was could wait. For all he cared, he could have a complete breakdown later, but right now, there was only one thing that he cared about:

Getting to Alderaan and see his wife.

I usually write about 500 words an hour, but somehow I managed to write this story (almost 8000 words!) in just about 4 hours. Don't ask me how, because I have no idea lmao